Gamers Section

July 26, 2017

Coolermaster MasterMouse Pro L Review

Product Overview

Pros:

Affordable
Modularity
Responsive
Comfortable

Cons:

DPI switch position strange

Bottom Line:

4.5 / 5 - Excellent

Reviewed by: Weston

Today we are going to be taking a look at a gaming mouse from the folks over at Coolermaster. The MasterMouse Pro L comes in at just under £50 in the UK and under $55 in the US, but should you consider one?

Design

Right off the bat I have to say that I am a fan of the clean approach that Coolermater have gone for. You all probably won’t know but I’m not a huge fan of “look at me” peripherals and the Pro L is definitely more conservative in its styling approach.

I’m also a big fan of the matte finish, which unlike a lot of other hides fingerprint grease very well. If you also look at the finish a bit closer you can see a sort of glimmer to it, its more visible in direct light.

On the rear of the mouse you have the Coolermaster logo, which is subtle and doesn’t stand out too much. Again in keeping with the more minimalist styling approach. Round here you can also see one of the RGB zones, this can display up to 16.7 million colours and is customisable via the downloadable software. At default it displays which of the current profiles you are using, but again you can change it to your preference.

The left side of the mouse houses two buttons which act as ‘Next page’ and ‘Previous page’ at default. But again with the software these can be changed to suit your needs. These are really nicely positioned and are very easy to press with your thumb or little finger as this mouse is ambidextrous. Just in front of the two buttons is a DPI indicator, which lets you know which DPI setting you are currently using. This again can be altered in software.

The top of the mouse houses your left click, right click and a scroll wheel. The clicks have a really nice contour and fit my palm style grip really nicely. The scroll wheel is rubberised and heavily textured. It feels great, the scroll isn’t the smoothest I’ve ever encountered, but the steps are nicely defined. You also get another RGB zone here as well.

The right side of the mouse houses two more customisable buttons, the one closest to the front is defaulted to what Coolermaster is calling “Storm Tactix” this acts like a FN button on your keyboard and can be assigned different functions. The second right side button is set to a profile switch. Also on the right side is a secondary DPI indicator, this is great if you are left handed as you can see the same as if you are using with your right hand.

The underside of the mouse houses your Avago sensor, gliding feet and oddly the DPI switch. I’ll talk more about the sensor later, but this has to be my only criticism of the design. The underside mounted DPI button, I get that it cleans up the design but having it out of reach is a bit of pain. This is only a minor gripe as you can switch one of the four buttons to act as your DPI switch, but that means you lose the functionality of having four customisable buttons. This may not be an issue to you, but it would have been nice to have a top mounted DPI toggle.

Finally onto the cable, its 1.8m long and is fabric coated which is nice, the downside is that its non-removable. I don’t mind that too much, it would have been nice if it were removable, but its by no means a deal breaker.

Build

The mouse it made mostly from high grade plastics and I’m okay with that. The plastic used is really good quality and doesn’t feel cheap at all. The buttons feel well planted and have practically no side wobble. They give off a nice tactile feedback and audible click, they don’t feel mushy and I have no complaints. The scroll wheel feels well planted and again doesn’t suffer from any sort of wobble in use. Overall construction is solid and for the price its well made.

Comfort

This is where the Pro L sets itself apart from the usual offerings at the price and that is modularity. So how is this mouse modular, well it comes with an extra top cover and side grips.

Out of the box its set up for a palm style grip, but included you get one for claw style. This is fantastic as there is no shopping around for a mouse that suits your grip style, as this does both. For me, I pretty much liked how it was straight from the box, but if you prefer a different grip style then having the option to seamlessly switch between the two is a great bonus.

The comfort for me is great, the mouse not overly large as I only have medium sized hands. If you have really large hands then it might be a little short for you.

The side grips offer a nice place to rest your thumb and are generous in size, they also has a hidden texture on it. Its not the best to be honest as its a touch slippery. I prefer a more textured side grip like the one on my Mionix Castor. This I will admit looks nicer, but its not as effective. But again if you don’t like the stock one you can swap it out and see if the other offering works better for you.

Swapping the side grips out is easy, there is a small lip that you gently grab and pull away from the body. These grips are held in by plastic pegs so they won’t come off accidentally, yet they don’t require too much effort to remove them. Removing the main shell is a little trickier as you have to unscrew it from the underside. There is demo on the main web page if you get a little stuck with it. Its easy enough though, you simply remove a small rubber plug to expose the screw, unscrew it and pop the shell off. You then swap out the shell and screw back in.

In use

Lets talk about the left and right clicks first and they are really great. They utilise Omron switches, which are very responsive and give great feeback. The travel distance is very nice and they don’t seem to bottom out and hit the body of the mouse. The right side click is a little bit stiffer feeling than the left click, not sure if this is intentional or a minor problem. It doesn’t really affect performance at all, its just an odd sensation when using them. The clicks are quick and accurate, I tested the mouse in PUBG and I found the responsiveness to be much better than on the Castor I usually use. I’ll be honest I’m not the best at PUBG, but I found I did a little better in game with the Pro L over the Mionix. So if you are a serious gamer, this in my opinion is better than the Mionix, the clicks felt more responsive and less sluggish. I also tried it on games like Rise of the tomb raider and Arkham Knight and again my experience was better with the Pro L. My final test was a little bit of photoshop editing and again I felt that I was somehow a little more accurate with the Pro L and it was easier to perform the same task. So if you do use if for productivity as well, its good.

Onto the sensor now and this uses a Avago PMW3360 optical unit paired with a 32 bit ARM processor. Its capable of a DPI of up to 12,000 which I’m sure not many people use. My preference is 5000 DPI as its just fast enough and not too quick. I do turn it down for Photoshop so I can be a little more accurate, but usually 5000 is my jam. In game the sensor works great with the smooth glide to create a really nice experience. Don’t get me wrong I love my Castor but that seems to snag my mouse mat a little, this is much more fluid and it flows a lot better. There was also a noticeable improvement in accuracy. I found that especially when sniping I was a touch more accurate, nothing major, but I seemed to hit more shots than I did before. The movement also a touch less laggy, not much but it feels more responsive.

Software

The software is fanstastic, its much more superior to that which comes with the Mionix. The first page you see is the main control. Here you can customise the mouses functions to your hearts content. You can assign buttons, set custom profiles, control your LED effects, customise your sensor and even your OS sensitivity.

Its easily the most comprehensive software suite I’ve seen for a mouse and you could spend ages tailoring the Pro L to suit your every need. Its logically laid out, easy to navigate and well designed. To assign button simply click the corresponding number located next to the button and it brings up an options menu, you can then assign functions to that button and set a custom profile for FPS games, MOBA etc. Its brilliant.

The LED tweaking is great too, there a 8 different options to choose from. I personally prefer static, but again with up to 16.7 million colours to choose from and all the effects you can make your mouse unique to you or match your setup. If you’re not into RGB then simply switch it off. But that doesn’t end there you can click on the different RGB zones and apply different colours. The only slight issue is that the rear zone and scroll seemed to be linked together and you can do them individually. Bit of a shame really.

But as a whole the software is superb and you can pretty much set up your mouse however you want to. Download it here.

Summary

So for under £50 I can easily say its a far superior mouse to my old Mionix Castor and actually I’ve decided to switch and use this as my everyday mouse. Its great for gaming, which is no surprise really but it really impressed me for my other use which is content editing a creation. Honestly this is the best mouse I’ve ever used to date, that’s not saying that there is probably better out there, because I’m sure there will be. At £50 however I’m not so sure, the only similarly priced mouse I’ve tested at this price is the Castor and this is so much better. My other experience is with the Logitech G300s, RAT 3. RAT 5 and Logitech MX master and again its so much better. Okay the MX master was better for productivity but for gaming this is in a different league.

So should you buy one, I would say… its well worth putting close to the top of your list. Its one of the most customisable mice out there at the price point and its far better than anything else I’ve ever used. Okay so my past mouse use is not too high end, but in 2017 this is proof you don’t need to spend more than £50 on a great mouse.